Source : the age
Young professionals battled it out for a converted Fitzroy warehouse at Saturday auction, with a doctor in his mid-30s taking out the winning bid at just above $1,432,500.
The bidding for the two-bedroom, two-storey townhouse, located at 2/124 Rose Street and across from Lune Croissanterie, started low at 900,000, with Belle Property Carlton’s lead agent and auctioneer Scott McElroy pushing for bids closer to the guided price of $1.15 to $1.25 million.
“The next bid was $1.1 million, and I got it moving along from there,” he said. For the next 15 minutes, five groups – “all young professional couples and singles” – bid in increments of $20,000, $10,000, $5000 and $1000, quickly surpassing the reserve price of $1.27 million.
There is no legal requirement for a vendor’s reserve to be in line with their property’s price guide.
“The winner, a doctor, was looking for something unique in Fitzroy, and this ticked a lot of boxes, including being close to hospitals,” McElroy said.
The unique converted warehouse property in Fitzroy attracted interest from young professionals. Credit: Domain
He said there was currently a “lack of opportunity in the market for unique properties that have character”, which contributed to interest in the warehouse.
“There is also a lack of good quality owner-occupier stock at the moment, but that’s classic winter for you,” McElroy added. “A lot of investors are also not as frustrated as they were months ago, so they are holding tight longer to see how much the market will improve after interest rate cuts.”
Nearby, a three-bedroom, double-fronted Victorian house in Fitzroy North passed in at auction at $2.42 million, before selling shortly after at the reserve price of $2.55 million.
Luke Chisholm, lead agent from Nelson Alexander Fitzroy, said while all interested parties had turned up at the 96 Freeman Street property, guided at $2.4 million to $2.55 million, they didn’t have the confidence to participate.
“Two people we had marked as interested hung around afterwards, but because they hadn’t bid the buyer had exclusivity to talk to the vendor,” he said.
The winners were a young professional couple looking to move into the area, and the deceased estate was their ticket in.
Chisholm said while supply was low, quality houses have been doing well due to an increase in buyer confidence following the recent interest rate cuts.
